• What is the Lead Generator?
• How does the Lead Generator work?
• How much does the Lead Generator cost?
• How do I cancel my subscription?
• What is an SIC Code?
• What if I don't want to post my information?
• What is The Lead Generator's privacy policy?
• What if there's no SIC Code for my Company's Needs or Products/Services?
• I checked off my company's Needs (or Products & Services,) but they don't show up in the data base.
• Some data looks old/I've seen it before.
• Why are my UserName and Password included in Lead Generator Notifications?

What is the Lead Generator?

The Lead Generator is a simple, patented system that enables you to increase your company's sales, and reduce its costs - simultaneously - in as little as 15 minutes a day. As a result, by using the Lead Generator you can increase your company's revenue, market share and profitability, quickly and easily, right from your PC.

How does The Lead Generator work?

The Lead Generator is not a mailing list, a "get rich quick" scheme, an advertising medium, or a new way to play the "numbers game." Rather, it is a "lead generation solution" that takes advantage of the fact that every company, including yours, is both a buyer and a seller at the same time - and then lets you leverage your buying power to generate qualified leads.

In the Lead Generator, we refer to the your purchasing requirements as Needs," but the fact of the matter is that every company, in fact, every consumer, government agency and non-profit, too, has needs. And they can be used to dramatically lower your sales costs.

What the Lead Generator does is simply requires users to post their company's Needs to the database in order to get access to other companies' Needs. Their Needs become leads for you, while your Needs become leads for them - saving you a ton of time and money in the process.

The Lead Generator costs $24.95 per month for unlimited usage by one or two users. Multiple user discounts are available (here) for rates. You can also get FREE usage if you upload your address book. Click here to find out more.

How do I cancel my subscription?

You can cancel your subscription to the Lead Generator at anytime by clicking on the "Unsubscribe" link, under the "My Info" tab. You will be asked to enter your UserName and Password in order to insure security. And if you then click on the "Unsubscribe" button, all of your company's data will be removed from the system, your account will be deleted, and any billing will stop.

What is an SIC Code?

An SIC Code is a number assigned by the US Department of Labor to every industry and function in the economy. As most commonly used, the official SIC Code system has around 800 4-digit codes to represent broad categories of products and services. For example, "2051" is the SIC Code for bakeries, "3312" is the SIC Code for Steel Manufacturers, and "0782" is the SIC Code for Landscapers. The structure of the system also allows you to differentiate between manufacturers, wholesales/distributors, and retailers. For example, "3429" is the SIC Code for furniture manufacturers, "5021" is the SIC Code for furniture wholesalers, and "5712" is the SIC Code for furniture retailers.

The Lead Generator has expanded on the SIC Code system, using up to 8 digits and 13,500 codes, so that you can be very precise about what you make and/or sell, and what you need. And if we don't have one in the system that describes what you make and/or sell (or what you need,) let us know and we'll add more.

But using SIC Codes makes it very easy to match your products and services to other users' needs, and vice versa - which is the goal of the system.

What if I don't want to enter my company's information?

The Lead Generator can provide highly-qualified leads (and do so inexpensively,) because its users recognize that the cost of posting their information (which is the source of the leads,) is trivial compared to the value of what they can get out of it. If you do not feel comfortable participating in this kind of information exchange, there are many other services you can use to market your business (advertising, telemarketing, direct mail, networking, etc.,) but we believe that you will find them all to be more expensive and less effective than the Lead Generator.

What is the Lead Generator's Privacy Policy?

Publishing certain information about your company is the foundation of the Lead Generator: In short, you have to give information to get information. By your participating in the process, you are agreeing to publish certain information about your company (i.e. its description, needs, products and services, etc.,) on the site so that you can get access to this same type of information from your potential prospects.

At the same time, there is some information that is clearly NOT appropriate for us to make public, and we will not publish it, or sell it, including your personal profile information and contact information.

As you may know, even your email address is private on the Lead Generator (unless you deliberately publish it), and you can maintain your anonymity for as long as you like. Other users can contact you only through your Lead Generator account (using the Messaging Sub-system,) unless you deliberately tell them some other way to reach you.

What if there's no SIC Code for your Company's Needs, or Products/Services?

There are currently over 13,000 SIC Codes in the Lead Generator, but it is possible, considering the fast pace with which business is changing, that there are none that are just right for your business, either to represent its needs, or to represent its products & services.

If you want to suggest that we add a new SIC Code, simply click here and send us a note. Be sure to put "New SIC Code" in the subject. In the message, we need two things:

• Where do you think the SIC Code should go? That is, what number do you think it ought to have, what category and/or subcategory do you think it belongs in, and what other SIC Codes should it go before or after?
• Provide a description of the product or service. Try to keep it under 80 characters, and to include any keywords that you want people to be able to search on.

When you send it, we'll see if we can get it in. It may take a few days, and we may have to do some editing, but in most cases, there shouldn't be a problem. Once it has been added, you'll be able to select it.

I checked off Needs (or Products & Services,) but they don't show up in the data base.

When you are using the Drill-down or Search methods to post your company's Needs or Products & Services, you have to remember to click the "Submit" button on the bottom of the screen in order to process the form.

If you don't hit the "Submit" button, nothing will get posted to the data base. If you merely hit the "Back" key on your browser, the form will not get processed.

Some data looks old/I've seen it before

If this is a concern, then we have to go back over what a lead on the Lead Generator really is.

First, remember that using the Lead Generator is not like buying a database, where 95% of the data is waste (and you don't know which 95% it is.) The Lead Generator is all about quality: finding prospects who actually need your products & services, and not wasting scarce resources spamming unqualified suspects.

Second, keep in mind that every user has to update their data monthly (plus a one month grace period,) in order to maintain access to the data base. As a result, the information on the system should never be more than one-to-two months old. Considering the content, i.e. actual needs that should be orders of magnitude better than any else available.

Third, note that leads on the Lead Generator don't "age" in the way that traditional leads do -- because they're not traditional leads. Certainly there may be time-sensitive opportunities; but if they're still online, they're still hot, and still real.

Remember, leads on the lead generator are pieces of information that either explicitly identify an opportunity, or give you the ability to infer an opportunity, say, by giving you a strategic contact, or telling you enough about a prospect to make a worthwhile inquiry about a need, for example. But leads on the Lead Generator, like all real leads, still need to be worked.

Either way, there shouldn't be any aging of your ingenuity. (If you need suggestions about how to find and work leads on the Lead Generator, you might want to take a look at Part III of the User's Guide, How to Search for Sales Leads.) If you haven't at least tried to contact the other person, there may be more to do. If they don't respond, though, you'll have a chance to rate them.

Why are your UserID and Password included in Lead Generator Notifications?

As you may have read in The Lead Generator documentation, once a day the system checks for messages, status, leads, etc., and sends emails to users as necessary and appropriate. When it does this, it looks in your User Profile to see if you checked off whether or not you want your UserName and Password included in the notifications.

Many users have asked for the system to include their UserNames and Password because they have to memorize so many different passwords, and this makes it easier for them to get back in to the system. Also, if you share your computer, it can enable you to avoid leaving it in cache.

If you don't want to include your password in the notification, you can simply check off in your Personal Profile that you don't want it included.